Music on the Hill Scholarship
Congratulations to the winners of our 2026 scholarship: Ian Lin and Alejandro Quintero Cashore
THANK YOU to all of our talented applicants. Dozens of young Rhode Island musicians applied: pianists; string, wind, and brass players, ages 13-18.
Ian Lin and Alejandro Quintero Cashore will perform June 1 during Music on the Hill’s 2026 chamber music festival..
The winner of the $400 first prize is pianist Ian Lin, 16, of Wakefield. A student in Davidson Academy Online, Ian studies with Jonathan Bass at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School.
East Greenwich cellist Alejandro Quintero Cashore, 18, earned the second prize of $200. Alejandro is a senior at Bishop Hendricken High School in Warwick and studies with Megan Koch.
Five musicians earned Honorable Mention prizes of $100:
• Edwin Chen, age 16, piano, Johnston, La Salle Academy
• Kevin Chen, age 17, piano, North Providence, North Providence HS
• Eden Conwell, age 16, piano, Portsmouth, Portsmouth HS
• David Delaplain, age 15, piano, Hope, home school
• Audrey Huang, age 13, harp, Barrington, Barrington MS
Our scholarship program is made possible by the generous support of Susan and Kenneth Loiacono.
Ian Lin is a 16-year-old pianist, composer, and violinist from Wakefield, Rhode Island. He studies piano with Jonathan Bass (New England Conservatory Preparatory School) and Wei-Yi Yang (Yale). Ian regularly plays recitals for retirement communities, and has played in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and Symphony Hall. He was featured in Kingston Chamber Music Festival’s 2024 Young Artist Recital and has been presented by Core Memory Music. Recent honors include being named a 2026 YoungArts Winner with Distinction and a recipient of first-year full scholarship from the Chopin Foundation of the U.S. One of 20 senior contestants at 2026’s Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists, he won 2026’s NFMC Stillman-Kelley/Thelma Byrum Award and Claire Ulrich Whitehurst Award. Ian won Vancouver Piano Sessions’s Concerto Competition and East Carolina Piano Festival Competition. He has appeared as soloist with Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra, Long Bay Symphony, and RI Philharmonic Youth Symphony Orchestra. Active in chamber music through NEC Prep’s CHIPS program, Ian was a quarterfinalist in Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. As a violinist, Ian is in Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and was formerly concertmaster of Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and a member of Philadelphia Youth Orchestra. Ian studies at Davidson Academy Online. Besides music, he enjoys tennis and chess.
Alejandro Quintero Cashore is an 18-year-old cellist from East Greenwich, Rhode Island. He is currently a member of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Symphony Orchestra, and has earned principal cellist for the RIMEA (Rhode Island Music Educators Association) and All-State Orchestras in 2023, 2024, 2025, and for the 2026 festival. Highly passionate about community service and social justice, he’s spent over 100 hours volunteering and working at Community Music Works in Providence, Rhode Island, and has served as the president of Bishop Hendricken High School’s affinity group, The Brotherhood, since 2022, where he has organized school wide luncheons attended by 120+ peers of color and launched a Civil Rights Movement Student Immersion Trip, whose inaugural group of 12 students will travel to sites like the Equal Justice Initiative Legacy Sites in Montgomery, Alabama, in February 2026. Summer festivals attended include Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra (NYO2) in 2025, where he toured in Edinburgh, Scotland, and performed at Carnegie Hall, and the Sphinx Performance Academy at Berklee College of Music in Boston and CU Boulder School of Music in 2025 and 2024, respectively. Most recently, he was awarded Bishop Hendricken High School’s Leonard Bernstein Musicianship Award, the Daniel and Dorothy Harrop Scholarship for Excellence in Music, and a gold medal on the Level 4 National Spanish Exam for a score above the 95th percentile. Alejandro plans to double major in Cello Performance and Economics at Yale University.
APPLICATIONS OPEN FOR 2027 IN SEPTEMBER
The scholarship supports continued study of classical music performance.
Awards (up to $400) are disbursed directly to winners’ designated instructor; ensemble program; summer opportunity; or school, conservatory, or college music fee.
Winners may be invited to perform during Music on the Hill’s festival.
Eligibility: Rhode Island residents, ages 13 to 18
All instruments, including voice. Chamber groups may apply together and share the prize. One application per person, please.
The application includes:
- Audition: VIDEO recording, one piece, four to eight minutes
- Title and composer of selection
- Name, age, hometown, school, and a brief description of your music study
There is no application fee.
Applications are adjudicated on the basis of musicianship and performance. Judges include Artistic Director John Pellegrino and several members of Music on the Hill’s ensemble. Finalists may be asked to play for the panel on Zoom. Prizes will be awarded at the discretion of the judges.
Application form
Applications will open again in September 2026. Please contact us with questions. Thank you.